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Dave Newsham tops Silverstone BTCC test for ES Vauxhall squad

Dave Newsham topped the British Touring Car media day test at Silverstone on Monday

Newsham drove BMW and SEAT machinery for Geoff Steel Racing and Special Tuning Racing in his rookie BTCC season last year. He has switched to Team ES Racing for 2012 and topped the test for much of the day with his turbocharged Vauxhall Vectra.

The former Renault Clio Cup champion's best time of 58.965s around the National layout was nearly 0.4s clear of 2011 runner-up Gordon Shedden in Honda's new NGTC Civic.

Shedden had been behind triple champion team-mate Matt Neal, but jumped to second with a late effort.

Rob Collard was also within half a second of Newsham in fourth, with one of West Surrey Racing's BMW, now running turbo engines for the first time. His team-mate Nick Foster also had a run in the same car.

Eurotech Racing's Andrew Jordan made it three NGTC Civics in the top five, while Rob Austin was sixth in one of his team's Austin Racing Audi A4s. His new signing Mark Hazell and 2011 driver Chris Swanwick also drove the car.

Fifteen cars officially recorded times, with 24 expected at the Brands Hatch season opener.

Pos  Driver           Team/Car              Time       Gap
 1.  Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall           58.965s
 2.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                 59.359s   + 0.394s
 3.  Matt Neal        Honda                 59.373s   + 0.408s
 4.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW               59.408s   + 0.443s
 5.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda        59.438s   + 0.473s
 6.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi           59.495s   + 0.530s
 7.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW               59.569s   + 0.604s
 8.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford        59.646s   + 0.681s
 9.  Chris James      ES Vauxhall           59.693s   + 0.728s
10.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford        59.857s   + 0.892s
11.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda        59.874s   + 0.909s
12.  Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen        59.949s   + 0.984s
13.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW               1m00.054  + 1.089s
14.  Lea Wood         Wood Vauxhall         1m00.318s + 1.353s
15.  Tony Gilham      Gilham Honda          1m03.573s + 4.608s
16.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford        1m08.697s + 9.372s
*Times for Mark Hazell and Chris Swanwick (Austin Audi) not available

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